We must, therefore, seek for some other way of accounting for the sticks--which utterly puzzled us, and which Mr.Manross well describes as 'numerous pieces of wood which, being involved in the pitch, are constantly coming to the surface.

They are often several feet in length, and five or six inches in diameter.

On caching the surface they generally assume an upright position, one end being detained in the pitch, while the other is elevated by the lifting of the middle.

They may be seen at frequent intervals over the lake, standing up to the height of two or even three feet.

They look like stumps of trees protruding through the pitch; but their parvenu character is curiously betrayed by a ragged cap of pitch which invariably covers the top, and hangs down like hounds' ears on either side.' Whence do they come?
Have they been blown on to the lake, or left behind by man?
or are they fossil trees, integral parts of the vegetable stratum below which is continually rolling upward?
or are they of both kinds?
I do not know.